‘I am witnessing, it seems, a Meeting for Worship stretched out over time.’

Orthodox icons and being gathered. Martyn Kelly paints a picture.

by Martyn Kelly 5th April 2019

I am in a gathered silence but not in a Quaker Meeting, in a building that, in terms of ostentatious decoration, is ying to the Meeting house’s plain yang. The space – an Orthodox church in Bucharest – is empty save for a few people moving around with purpose. They cross the open floor of the church, stand before an icon in silence, cross themselves, then bend to kiss the icon before moving to the next.